I am interested in making some mead, I have an ample supply of pure maple syrup and a neighbor who has bees. I know this will be a dumb question but never having tasted mead what does it taste like? Is it like a wine or beer or brandy or ?????

People who have never had mead always seem to think of it as some sort of sweet golden nectar. That can be the case but mead can taste like anything, depending upon how it's made and the ingredients being used. It can taste like anything from dry red wine to pancake syrup and everything in between. It can be red, orange, purple, clear, blush, sweet, sour, sparkling, still or any combination you can imagine. Try it - you may occasionally be disappointed but you'll never be bored.

don't pour maple syrup in to your mead....not your first mead at least.

Agreed. having made several meads now, if I had to do it all over again, I would start with one of the Curt and Kathy Stock mead kits supplied by Northern Brewer. They have some straightforward techniques that they supply you for the cost of the kit. Once you've done it once from a kit you will always know the steps that work and then can branch out from there.

Well, I have made many meads, from sweet to super dry (which I prefer). Up until the last two years they never lasted long, some how all the bottles disappeared when ever friends came over. Fixed that by changing the locks and becoming the hermit while I build up the pipeline.
But I have never tasted any commercial mead that was worth it's cost.
I finally found a redstone traditional mead at a local wine store and snapped one up. For $25 I hope it is worth it. I'll be cracking it open when and if I can get some friends over for a beer / mead / cider / wine tasting in a few months. But I need to get an un-tappable lock for my store room, if there is such a thing.
Until then, it is taunting me in the fridge, just like all of my other meads that I have ageing.

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But I have never tasted any commercial mead that was worth it's cost.
I finally found a redstone traditional mead at a local wine store and snapped one up. For $25 I hope it is worth it. I'll be cracking it open when and if I can get some friends over for a beer / mead / cider / wine tasting in a few months. But I need to get an un-tappable lock for my store room, if there is such a thing.
Until then, it is taunting me in the fridge, just like all of my other meads that I have ageing.

Ditto on your first sentence KK. Over here, all the commercial meads seem to be "dessert mead". I tried 4 different ones last year, none of them were bad, but they were all cloyingly sweet. I measured gravity on them all and they showed between 1030 and 1040.

Now whether that was the plan/idea/intention, to produce "dessert" meads, or whether it's the makers idea of the public perception (honey being very sweet, so mead must be very sweet, but with alcohol), I don't know.

I wouldn't buy any of them again, but it wouldn't stop me trying others......

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